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PreGMC
The God Machine Chronicle and its vampiric iteration, Blood & Smoke: the Strix Chronicles are designed to be backwards compatible wherever possible. Chances are pretty good that if there's something you wanted from outside those two sources, it is possible to get. Frequently, though, a little tweaking is needed. This results in a whole slew of house-ruled things. A coleslaw's worth, actually! 'Merits' ''Archery (Style) (• to ••••) :Rapid Nock (•): Once per turn your character may reload her bow as a reflexive action. :Precision Shot (••): Reduce the weapon's damage rating one-for-one to ignore penalties for shooting a specified target. :Secondary Target (•••): Sometimes shooting an opponent behind cover is all but impossible. An arrow can knock objects off balance, however, or arc over the top of cover to do incidental damage. By using Secondary Target, your character opts to not hit her target but instead strike them with any collateral objects that might be nearby. She causes bashing damage instead of lethal, but ignores all cover penalties to the roll. The weapon's damage rating does not add to the damage in this case. :Rain of Arrows (••••): Your character moves quickly enough to fire multiple arrows in a turn. Sacrifice your character's Defense for the turn to use this maneuver. For every cumulative -1 you take on your attack roll, the attack causes one additional point of appropriate damage in addition to the damage rating of the weapon as your character fires multiple arrows at his victim. ''Blood-Tell Oath (•) Prerequisite: Status Invictus • :The vassal writes something in his own blood, expending a single Vitae, and the liege expends a Willpower point. The text remains fresh until and unless the oath is broken. As long as the blood remains fresh, it can be consumed to provide one Vitae, or tasted to test a Kindred's qualities of blood. Doing so risks blood addiction in the normal way. :This Oath does not need to be witnessed by a Notary, and the trick of it may be taught to any Invictus. Like other oaths, however, it must be bought for every iteration of the oath, and is refunded when the oath expires or is broken. As is always the case for Invictus oaths, the liege must be an Invictus. ''Bodas de Sangre (••) :Known as the 'Marriage Oath', Bodes de Sangre is unique among Invictus Oaths in that there is neither 'vassal' nor 'liege', though one of the participants must be Invictus. Both participants must give informed consent, and seal the Oath with a Willpower point. Thereafter, both members may use the highest City, Clan, and Covenant Status that they have between them. If a member could not normally qualify for the Status, the Status score is considered one lower. (For instance, a Nosferatu whose husband is Daeva Status 3 is treated as though she has Daeva Status 2.) If both members share the category of Status and have at least one dot each, they are considered one higher. (For example, if the Nosferatu in the above example has City Status 4 and her husband has City Status 2, they may both claim effective City Status 5 while wed.) Any strip of Status from one applies to both, and they may both buy into their mutual Status Merit, like shared dots in Haven. :If one member breaks the agreements set forth in the oath (typically relating to land rights, peace treaties, or feeding privileges, but very occasionally relating to quaint concepts of sexual fidelity or 'honorable behavior') that individual loses a dot of Willpower and takes aggravated damage equal to the other member's highest City, Clan, or Covenant Status score. Their betrayed spouse regains all lost points of Willpower. :Like 'Altar', this is a shared merit. Each spouse pays 1 Experience toward its cost. ''Ingenuous Resistance (•••) Prerequisite: Kindred, Enticing :Your character's seductive Beast dominates her personality, and the need to be liked is more influential than either her survival instincts or her desire to win. You still do not receive 10-agains to invoke the competitive or monstrous Beasts, but do maintain 10-agains when resisting them. Additionally, you gain +2 dice when rolling to contest or resist another character's Dominate or Nightmare. Your dicepools to resist or contest another character's Majesty or other appeals to the seductive Beast suffer a -2 die penalty. ''Inherent Resistance (•••) Prerequisite: Kindred, Cutthroat :Your character's competitive Beast dominates her personality, and the need to prove her own superiority is more influential than the desire to be liked or even her own survival instinct. You still do not receive 10-agains to invoke the seductive or monstrous Beasts, but do maintain 10-agains when resisting them. Additionally, you gain +2 dice when rolling to contest or resist another character's Majesty or Nightmare. Your dicepools to resist or contest another character's Dominate or other appeals to the competitive Beast suffer a -2 die penalty. ''Inhuman Resistance (•••) Prerequisite: Kindred, Atrocious :Your character's monstrous Beast dominates her personality, and appeals to the fight-or-flight reflex are significantly more effective than attempting to engage her either emotionally or mentally. You still do not receive 10-agains to invoke the seductive or competitive Beasts, but do maintain 10-agains when resisting them. Additionally, you gain +2 dice when rolling to contest or resist another character's Majesty or Dominate. Your dicepools to resist or contest another character's Nightmare or other appeals to the monstrous Beast (including Feral Infection) suffer a -2 die penalty. ''Mind of the Devouring Worm'' :No longer exists. Instead, Eidetic Memory ''can be taken at any time rather than being restricted to character generation. ''Mind of the Unblinking Serpent (••) :As written, with Eidetic Memory replacing Mind of the Devouring Worm as a prerequisite. ''Mind of the Inscrutable Hydra (••) :As written. ''Misplaced Heart (•) Prerequisite: Protean 2 or Nosferatu (CG only) :You gain access to a new Predatory Aspect, which moves your heart within your body up to two feet from its original position. Those who attempt to stake you find it very difficult to find the right location (which should be your most tightly guarded secret). Unless the attacker knows the precise location of your heart, they take a -5 penalty to make a targeted blow to your heart, instead of the normal -3. It still requires 5 damage to stake you. :A Nosferatu whose Curse includes physical deformity may take this as an 'always on' Merit at character generation. This Merit costs 1 Experience (5 Beats). ''Oath of Blood Focus (•••) :On swearing the Oath, the vassal's Willpower dots temporarily rise to 10, and she gains enough Willpower points to fill her expanded capacity. Her Blood Potency temporarily increases by two for all purposes, though this does not auto-fill in the same manner as Willpower. She does not need to roll to resist the Daysleep, and does not suffer from the Lethargic Condition, which allows her to treat her Resolve as half again as much for the purposes of how much Downtime she has available (rounded up). Finally, after any scene in which she draws closer to fulfilling her Oath, she regains one Willpower point. :However, taking any action that does not contribute to fulfilling the Oath requires a successful Resolve + Composure roll, and to take an action that actually goes against the Oath requires an exceptional success on this roll. The vassal may not spend Vitae or Willpower to augment dice pools for any action that does not contribute to fulfilling her Oath. :These benefits last for a number of nights equal to the subject's dots in Resolve. When the Oath's period is over, the sworn Kindred loses all of her Willpower points, leaving her worn and exhausted, and unable to spend Downtime until she regains a point of Willpower in the usual fashion. She may break the Oath early by surrendering all of her Willpower points. A Kindred may only swear one Oath of Blood Focus at a time. ''Oath of Burning Blood (• to •••••) :The oath is written in the blood of the Kindred swearing, costing a point of his own Vitae. This must be done of his own free will in order to be binding. It is sealed with a Willpower point from the liege to whom he is swearing. As with the Blood-Tell Oath, the text remains fresh until the Oath is broken or the swearing Kindred suffers Final Death. :When the swearer faces some force that could compel him to break the Oath, he gets a bonus to his resistance roll equal to the rating of this Oath. This applies only to contested or resisted rolls, and only against forces that could make him break the Oath. The bonus applies to any relevant roll, however, including rolls to resist frenzy and supernatural compulsion. He cannot voluntarily choose not to apply this bonus. In addition, if the swearer violates the Oath, he immediately takes a number of points of aggravated damage equal to the rating of this Oath, and loses the same amount of Vitae. :The effect of the Devotion ends when the subject breaks the Oath, thereby taking damage from it, or when the Notary or the liege releases the subject from its effects by blotting out the written oath with one Vitae of his own. ''Oath of Running Blood (•) Prerequisite: Status Invictus • :The swearing Kindred bleeds a single Vitae into a clear bottle, and expends a point of Willpower. When he spends the Willpower, the blood hardens into dark brown glass. As the vassal nears the fulfillment of his Oath, the blood becomes more scarlet and more fluid, turning fully liquid when the Oath is fulfilled. The liquidity of the blood is based on the mind of the vassal. If he believes he is close to fulfilling the Oath, the blood becomes very fluid. If he knows in his heart that he is doing nothing to fulfill the Oath, the blood hardens back to solidity. It is thus possible for the blood to become completely liquid even though the Oath has not been fulfilled, if the Kindred in question thinks that it has. If the subject suffers Final Death, the blood turns black and shatters into dust. :This Oath does not need to be witnessed by a Notary, and the trick of it may be taught to any Invictus. Like other oaths, however, it must be bought for every iteration of the oath, and is refunded when the oath expires or is broken. As is always the case for Invictus oaths, the liege must be an Invictus. ''Oath Unsworn (•••) Prerequisite: The Oath of Burning Blood :The Oath Unsworn modifies an Oath of Burning Blood and must be bought at the same time, both by the liege. It functions in the same way as the Oath of Burning Blood, except that it is written in the liege's blood as well as sealed with his Willpower, and does not require the vassal to consent. It does, however, require the vassal to be in the presence of the Notary while she recites the text of the Oath from beginning to end, and that he comprehend what he is being forced to swear. :The Oath ceases to have a hold over the vassal when he fulfills its terms, gains a dot of Humanity, loses a dot of Humanity, or spends a dot of Willpower to be rid of it. When any of these things happen, the liege suffers lethal damage equal to the rating of the oath in backlash. As always, Sanctity of Merits refunds the cost of the Oath when it is no longer relevant. ''Single-Minded'' (•••) Prerequisite: Human, Indomitable :By spending a point of Willpower, you become immune to Majesty and Dominate for the rest of the scene. Supernatural powers that would sway or force your mind do not work. You can use this resistance reflexively. This power does not overcome the effects of the Vinculum. :Drawback: Using this Merit causes a -2 penalty to all Manipulation or Presence rolls due to mental detachment and lack of empathy. ''Swarm Mind (•) Prerequisites: Protean 3, Swarm Form :Swarm Mind improves Swarm Form so that the user may become a Swarm of Size 2 creatures. It otherwise works as Swarm Form. ''Throwing Weapons (Style) (• to ••••) Prerequisites: Dexterity 3, Athletics 3 May be used only with weapons size 1 or smaller. *Used with creator's permission.'' :Anything and Everything (•): Anything can make a missile, aerodynamic or not. You have trained to be accurate with anything on hand, baseballs to socket wrenches. At the start of your turn, make a reflexive Wits + Composure roll (with appropriate penalties for darkness or other complications). Success indicates you find something on hand to throw with a damage modifier of 0 and an initiative modifier of -1. The object is considered to have a Structure equivalent to the successes rolled to a maximum of those possessed in the Fighting Style. Whatever you grab doesn't suffer the normal -1 penalty for wielding an improvised weapon. :Nailed It (••): Your character can adjust for the heft and weight of a throw, turning heavier or poor choice throws into accurate hits. At any time, you can sacrifice points of Defense one-for-one to add to the attack pool of your next throw. This cannot happen if you've already used Defense in the same turn. If you use this maneuver, you may not sacrifice your full Defense for any other reason. For example, you cannot use Nailed It with an all-out attack. :It's Good! (•••): Sometimes your strength and dexterity betray you and you just need to hit that one impossible target. Your mastery of body mechanics and applied knowledge of aerodynamics make for clever throws. Whether you ricochet off the back wall or hit someone down a long dark school hallway with glass from the trophy case, you tend to hit your target regardless of conditions. Instead of striking your target directly you may strike them with collateral objects nearby. You may use It's Good to cause bashing damage with a lethal thrown weapon, ignoring all cover penalties to the roll. If your chosen weapon deals bashing damage, reduce the damage done by one, to a minimum of one. A thrown weapon’s damage rating does not add to the damage you deal in either case. :Ditto (••••): Your character moves quickly enough to throw multiples of the same weapon in a turn to overwhelm opponents with numerous hits, pricks, nicks, and swipes all in the blink of an eye. Sacrifice your character's Defense for the turn to use this maneuver. If the attack roll succeeds, the attack causes one additional point of appropriate damage in addition to the damage rating of the weapon as your character throws two of the same weapon at his victim (such as two knives). If your character also possesses the appropriate Quickdraw he may add additional copies of the same weapon (such as multiple throwing knives), with one additional weapon for each point of Dexterity above 2. A character with Dexterity 4, for example, could throw three knives, for +2 damage. You must, of course, possess sufficient weapons to throw. Category:Translations Category:Merits